Adolescence
by Triple Rainbow
Summary: Requested sequel of Childhood. AU Starts when Harry is about to turn 11 and follows through his years at Hogwarts. More powers than usual, but with a reasoning behind them that will be revealed as time goes on. Not a standard cookie cutter AU Harry story. Hope you like it.
1. Chapter 1

A storm was coming. He could feel it. The wind seemed to carry a certain warning within itself and the clouds began to spread over the horizon. It had been years since the snake incident, but the strangeness had not stopped. Harry could feel things sometimes- as if it was being carried across the breeze just for him. Sometimes he could tell when something would happen before it did, and other times he could remember back impossible years to before he was born.

After the death of the snake and near death of the boys, Harry decided to lock himself away from others- to try to protect them until he knew now to control the power that sometimes ran through him and overflowed. The other children began to tell stories of him- frightening the young ones. Harry soon became nothing more than an urban legend in his own home. The only one that really talked to him was Slick.

Slick was another boy at the orphanage. He was new- too new to have been there when the incident occurred all those years ago. He didn't see Harry lose control- slip into his mind and watch what horrors unfolded. Even today, Harry does not know if it was he who killed the snake- if it was he who ended a life. It still haunts him though. Slick helps him forget- to think of new crazy things like if a zombie bit a unicorn would it turn into a zombie unicorn- things that 10 year old boys were supposed to think about.

Slick smiled down at him as Harry sat on the bench.

"Lets go watch the other kids play soccer." The sun shined off of his honey brown hair, creating the illusion of a golden halo. You would never think the sun would soon end.

"No." Harry said looking up at the blue sky. "It is going to rain soon." Slick just shrugged and followed him inside. They were playing chess when it started pouring on the soccer game in the courtyard. Neither bothered to loom out of the window.


	2. Chapter 2

There was another boy. One not unlike Harry himself. The boy was always alone. The others feared him. He could make things happen- make people feel pain. But he, unlike Harry, did not feel remorse- the boy relished in it.

As the boy grew, he went on from the orphanage to a special school- one filled with whimsey and magic. But even this new world was full of hidden darkness. There was a war. A terrible war that broke everything. The boy grew up to lead that war. He lead the killings, the rapes, the tortures. Harry could feel all of them in his head- screaming, screaming to get out. The panic. The pain. The insanity. And finally the emptiness that always followed it.

Once there was a boy that was not unlike himself, who stared down into the green eyes of the child he would soon kill, and then everything was lost in a flash of green.

And Harry awoke from his dream in a cold sweat.

He would not sleep again that night- just like every night this happened.


	3. Chapter 3

The night was still filled with the dark clouds that had invaded the day before. A flash of lightning broke the sky in the distance. One. Two. Three. BOOM! Only three miles away. Fat raindrops smeared heavily across the window, creating a beautiful illusion that they were underwater- floating in the sea. But this illusion was constantly broken by the claps of thunder coming steadily closer.

BANG! Harry jumped back from the window a little- a smudge where his nose had been pressed against the cool glass. Something had hit the window.

Harry slowly opened the double panelled glass and stared out into the dark wet night. Nothing but blackness stared back at him. Large raindrops slapped the floor and soaked him- splotting his glasses. Harry squinted his eyes, trying to focus into the impenetrable dark. But it was useless. After a few minutes, Harry sighed and closed the window. Whatever it was that hit the window obviously wasn't getting back up.

The next day, a dead owl was found on the ground outside Harry's window- a soggy letter in it's claws.


	4. Chapter 4

The letter had been exposed to the elements for too long for it to be readable. The paper tore when unfolded and it's ink was smudged too much to have meaning. People soon forgot about it after it lost it's gossip appeal. But not Harry. It seemed formilar- an owl carrying messages. Too bad the messager was killed before it could deliver it's package. As soon as that thought came into Harry's mind, he had a sudden feeling that another would come, and others if necessary, to deliver their message. It was an important message it seemed.

And it would somehow lead to him leaving the orphanage. He wasn't sure how, the rest was hazy, but those two parts were clear.

That night, Slick walked in on Harry packing his things. They both froze for a moment. Harry set down his shirt, mouth opening and closing, trying to decide what to say.

"It's something that would have happened anyway. Isn't it," Slick said. It was not a question.

Harry nods. A sad almost-smile spreads across Slick's face.

"You shouldn't have to do that alone," he said as he picked up a shirt and put it in Harry's bag. Harry smiled at him. Neither's smile met their eyes.

They did not say anything. They did not have to. It was already known.

It took a week for the next letter to come. By then they were ready.


	5. Chapter 5

The magic was not a surprise. It explained more than anything else ever did. On the day the wizards had said they would pick Harry up, he and Slick were ready.

"So, I guess it's time to say goodbye." Slick could always read what Harry wished to say but couldn't".

"Yes," Harry replied softly. "But I will be back for sumer and holiday. I'll still see you." Slick nodded, but kept his head down. Harry stepped up in front foo Slick, his left hand reaching up to Slick's left cheek- almost touching but not so. "...I will miss you." Slick smiles a sad smile and looks Harry in the eyes.

"I will too."

Then, for the first time since Harry discovered what caused it, he touched his bare hand to Slick's soft skin. Almost immediantly the flashes came. Slick with his parents. Slick on the way to the orphanage alone. Slick meeting Harry Harry leaving and returin many times over the years. Slick studying. slick getting a scholarship. Slick meeting a girl. Them getting married- Harry the best man. THem growing old together. Slick dying. Harry, old and scarred, at the funeral.

Then they broke apart.

Both of their eyes were wide. Like anytime Harry touches someone- skin to skin, they saw into each other's lives. THe connection was instantaneous and absolute. Slick's mouth opens, closes, then opens again- trying to find the right words to say. So Harry stopped him with a finger to his lips.

"You will live a beautiful life. I will always be there for you in the end." Slick's eyes teared up a little and he smiled a silent thanks.

Picking up his suitcase, Harry started his way downstairs, a forever changed Slick behind him...


	6. Chapter 6

McGonagall. That was what she introduced herself as- the witch that had come to collect him. She stood tall; her face lined with age and newly refreshed grief, as she told him exactly what had transpired to make his childhood take place in an orphanage.

Harry was surprised how little it affected him to hear the story of his family's death. He had accepted long ago that they were dead. But it was much more interesting to him that the dreams corresponded to this story in a way only the attacker could preserve. Harry thought it best not to mention this fact to McGonagall. Right now it would be best to not raise suspicion toward him until he could properly research similar abilities in the wizarding word. That is what she called it, even if it did seem a bit uncreative.

Before they walked out the orphanage's front door, Harry had turned back once more to bid Slick a silent goodbye. Harry did not have high expectations of friend-making at Hogwarts, and leaving his only one here was not going to be easy- even if it is necessary.

McGonagall stretched out her hand toward him after leading him into a deserted side street.

"Hold onto my hand and I will apparate us to where we will get your school supplies," she says kindly but with authority. It was not a suggestion, but an order. "Apparition is a form of instantaneous magical transportation," she continues to explain- mistaking Harry's hesitation for confusion.

Harry looked down at his hand, thankful that he had decided to wear gloves today, before reaching out to hers. As soon as he grabbed on, the word twisted and blurred with a tug at the naval.


	7. Chapter 7

It was different from anything he had ever seen before. When they arrived, it was bustling with witches and wizards. Everything was so colorful, as if everything Harry had experienced until now had been in grey. His eyes scanned excitedly for a book store.

"Harry," McGonagall called- breaking him away from this thoughts.

"Yes, ma'am," Harry replied politely. _Make her love you_. He thought._ Then she may let you go on your own._

McGonagall smiled thinly at him. It was not forced, but rather hesitant. He was obviously not what she was expecting. Maybe he should have tried to seem more outgoing.

"Let's go through your list then." Harry nodded back with a bashful smile. _Pretend to be embarrassed by your eagerness. Play the shy boy that is eager to please. She will surely trust you then- want to take care of you. In this new world, you will need protection. No one here really matters. The only one that matters is gone until next break. But you'll get Slick back. _

McGonagall and Harry went along the street called Diagon Ally and fetched his supplies. He even got a good two hours in the book store- after which, McGonagall said he would make a splendid Ravensclaw, even though she had been hoping for Gryffindor. He just smiled gleefully as he thought of a school house that would be fine with him spending all his time with his nose in a book- regardless of the content.

But the real research began after he convinced McGonagall to let him go home alone (having previously been told by her about the Knight Bus when inquiring about other ways of wizard travel).

It was then that he rented a room at the Leaky Cauldron.

It was then that his real adventure began.


	8. Chapter 8

It was late at night, past twelve o'clock, and the stars shined like silver. Harry had been awoken again from his dreams. They were becoming more vivid. There were more dreams of the castle- they seemed so real. The last one hadn't ended badly like the rest did. It had been of the boy first going there. _But the time to ponder this is not now._ He thought as he looked out the window and over the Ally- into the stars. _No, it is the time for studying._

He had used part of his small fortune to buy the many stacks of books that covered his room. Harry had not yet found anything that explained the dreams, but that just made him more determined.

It was as Harry stared at the mind-numbing pages of _Bagstone's Journey in the Unconscious Mind: How to Decode Your Dreams_that it struck him that maybe the reason he could not find anything was because he was looking into the wrong subject matter. What if, instead of dreams, they were suppressed memories? That would open up so many new opportunities to explore.

And so it was with glee that Harry picked up this beginners guide to Occlumency.


End file.
